LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- A Lakewood house went up in flames Tuesday morning, injuring two people.
West Metro fire received several 911 calls just before 8 a.m. about the fire and emergency crews made it to the scene within minutes.
“Phone calls came from one of the two people that was inside at the time. He was able to get out and call dispatch,” said West Metro Fire Rescue spokesperson Ronda Scholting.
That person was able to self-evacuate after suffering minor injuries. A second person had to be pulled from the home by firefighters. He was taken to the hospital and is in critical condition.
Al Sharp lives right next door to the house the house that caught fire. He thought it was smoke from a nearby construction project.
“My wife realized it was smoke and she saw the house next door on fire. Immediately I called the fire department and by the time I got to the back door it was engulfed in flames,” Sharp said.
Several construction workers were also there and trying to help.
Robert Munro was one of them. He’s trained in fire rescue and said when he saw the smoke he knew immediately it was a house fire so he left the construction site to try to help.
He asked people nearby if anyone was still inside but no one knew for sure. He tried to get in but said he realized it was too dangerous.
“There was way too much smoke inside the house and so instead of having the fire department save just one person, it was clear that they would have maybe had to have more people rescued out of that house if we went in. It was just too dangerous,” Munro said.
Firefighters were eventually able to pull the second man from the house.
“They were pretty lifeless. They looked unconscious,” Munro said.
Munro said he wishes there was more he could have done.
“It was kind of hard to know that somebody was stuck inside that house while we were on the sidelines watching. Really there is nothing we can do,” he said.
About 40 firefighters responded to the house fire. It took them about a half an hour to get everything under control. By that time, the blaze had spread to an add-on.
Scholting said wind was not much of a factor in this case. The fire comes one day after many parts of Colorado were put under a red flag warning with heavy winds and dry conditions.
